1. ABSTRACTIONISM
Jason Basanese
Grant Kuklik
Kandinsky, Malevich,
Mondrian, O'Keeffe.

2. Influences
● Theosophy

3. Piet Modrian 1872-1944
Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1943

4. Mondrian's Life
● 1872 Mar 7 Piet Mondrian is Born
● 1892 Mondrian Enters the Academy for Fine Art in Amsterdam
● 1909 Mondrian joined the Dutch branch of the Theosophical
Society
● 1911 Mondrian Moves to Paris
● 1914 to 1919 Mondrian Visits Netherlands; World War I Begins
● 1917 De Stijl Movement
● 1919 to 1938 Mondrian Returns to France
● 1938 to 1944 Mondrian Moves to London and New York
● 1944 Feb 1 Mondrian Dies

5. Big idea 1
Tableau No. 4; Lozenge composition with red, grey, blue,
yellow, and black.
Modrians works were well thought out, he would slightly deviate from Geometric
simplicity/regularity creating very complex paintings.

6. Big idea 2
Composition with Blue
Modrian's works at first are easily recognizable due to all the upright
orientation, but next, the eccentricity of the lines, and substructures,
makes it difficult to find a focus.

7. Big Idea 3
Mondrian Avoids dissatisfaction of viewer, more specifically,
● 1) imbalance of placement or relative size of forms, favoring the left
over right, the upper over lower registers, one quadrant over another;
● 2) imbalance of weight of colors or textures;
● 3) imbalance of vertical/horizontal linear elements;
● 4) imbalance of closed/open planes;
● 5) imbalance of visual interest
Tableau I: lozenge with four lines and
gray

8. Georgia O'Keeffe 1887-1986
●
Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico /
Out Back of Marie's II, 1930

9. O'Keeffe's Life
● Born 1887 in Sun Prairie Wisconsin (On a farm)
● Later Moving to Williamsburg Virginia and attending The
Chatham Protestant Episcopal Institute Graduating in 1904
● Studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Part of the Art
Students of New York
● 1912 became a teacher of art and supervisor of art in
texas, continuing to be the head of the art department at
west texas state college
● Caught attention in 1916 in her Stieglitz exhibition
● 1918 Left teaching to be a painter for Stieglitz
● 1924 Married Stieglitz

10. Awards
● Elected to the American Academy of Arts and
Letters
● First retrospective show of a woman's art at
the Museum of Modern Art
● Awarded the Gold Medal of Painting by the
National Institute of Arts and Letters
● Awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's
highest civilian honor
● President Ronald Reagan presented the
National Medal of Arts in 1985.

11. Big Idea 1
Grey line with Black, Blue and
Jack in the Pulpit No.IV
Yellow. 1923, Georgia O’Keeffe
Often confused for being simply sexual,
O'Keeffe's Paintings are meant to focus on
femininity and tenderness.

12. Big Idea 2
Cow's Skull with Ram's Head White Deer’s Skull with
Calico Roses Hollyhock and Little Pedernal 1936
1931 Hills 1935
Georgia O'Keefe had a well known period where she
worked with bones and the desert, these paintings were
depictions of quietude, remoteness, and preservance
along with the beauty of the desert.

13. Big Idea 3
Series 1, No. 1 Series 1, No. 3 Series 1, No. 4
Georgia Okeeffe's works are usually made in series, this is how she
experiments with color and a little with shape by seeing the effects of
color change, (with the occasional shape change) from one painting
to the next.

14. Concluding slide
I have a new found respect for abstractionism,
these few artists strove to explain the
unexplainable through art and I can only
imagine how difficult this must have been for
them. Also like when you learn a new language,
there are certain words in that language that
don't directly translate, so you have to explain
through images. I know how frustrating this can
be so I appreciate these artists works much
more deeply than before I started this project.